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You are here: Home / Politics / America / The Defenestration of Matthew Whitaker Has Begun

The Defenestration of Matthew Whitaker Has Begun

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As expected the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have begun to strategically leak negative information about Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.

From TPM (because I’m not subscribing to The Wall Street Journal):

The FBI is investigating a Miami-based company with ties to Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker that was shuttered in May 2018 by the Federal Trade Commission, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Whitaker served on the company’s advisory board, appearing in promotional materials and, at one point, sending an email that appeared to threaten a disgruntled client.

The FTC, a civil regulatory body, called the company a “scam” in a press release, accusing it of persuading inventors to buy expensive marketing, patenting, and distribution packages and then blowing them off when they demanded fulfillment of their orders.

The WSJ reports that the FBI’s Miami field office is overseeing the criminal investigation along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, citing a letter sent by an FBI victim specialist. The report also states that the investigation began as early as June 2017.

Whitaker received $9,375 from the company, according to court documents.

A court-appointed receiver told the Wall Street Journal that while other advisory board members had given back fees that the company paid them, Whitaker had not yet replied to a demand notice.

From Murray Waas at Vox:

Matthew Whitaker, whom President Donald Trump named as his acting attorney general on Wednesday, privately provided advice to the president last year on how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to investigate the president’s political adversaries, Voxhas learned.

Whitaker was an outspoken critic of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe before he became the chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions in September 2017. That has rightfully raised concerns that Whitaker might now attempt to sabotage Mueller’s investigation. But new information suggests that Whitaker — while working for Sessions — advocated on behalf of, and attempted to facilitate, Trump’s desire to exploit the Justice Department and FBI to investigate the president’s enemies.

Sources say that Whitaker presented himself as a sympathetic ear to both Sessions and Rosenstein — telling them he supported their efforts to prevent the president from politicizing the Justice Department. A person close to Whitaker suggested to me that the then-chief of staff was only attempting to diffuse the tension between the president and his attorney general and deputy attorney general, and facilitate an agreement between the two sides.

But two other people with firsthand information about the matter told me that Whitaker, in his conversations with the president, presented himself as a vigorous supporter of Trump’s position and “committed to extract as much as he could from the Justice Department on the president’s behalf.”

One administration official with knowledge of the matter told me: “Whitaker let it be known [in the White House] that he was on a team, and that was the president’s team.”

During this period, Whitaker frequently spoke by phone with both Trump and Chief of Staff John Kelly, this same official told me. On many of those phone calls, nobody else was on the phone except for the president and Whitaker, or only Kelly and Whitaker. As one senior law enforcement official told me, “Nobody else knew what was said on those calls except what Whitaker decided to tell others, and if he did, whether he was telling the truth. Who ever heard of a president barely speaking to his attorney general but on the phone constantly with a staff-level person?”

Whitaker also counseled the president in private on how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to name a special counsel to investigate not only allegations of FBI wrongdoing but also Hillary Clinton. Trump wanted the Justice Department to investigate the role that Clinton purportedly played, as secretary of state, in approving the Russian nuclear energy agency’s (Rosatom) purchase of a US uranium mining company.

Yet Whitaker suggested to the White House that he personally was sympathetic to the appointment of a special counsel to investigate these matters, according to the two officials with knowledge of the matter. A Justice Department official told me: “You have to have a predicate to open an investigation, or to reopen a closed case. You have an even higher one, an extraordinary threshold, to appoint a special counsel. If you don’t, what you are doing is unethical as a lawyer.”

Much more at the link.

The President is out of the country for the next several days. Despite the fact that he’ll be tweeting, and barring a major diplomatic incident while in France, which, to be honest with the President is always a distinct possibility, he has limited ability to drive the news cycle through the weekend. Whitaker will continue to suffer a death of a thousand cuts until the DOJ and FBI gets what it wants, which is, at least a recusal, if not an outright resignation.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  2. 2.

    Chip Daniels

    On many of those phone calls, nobody else was on the phone except for the president and Whitaker, or only Kelly and Whitaker

    And Chinese intelligence services, Russian intelligence services, and anyone else in the world able to tap into an unsecured phone.

  7. 7.

    Yutsano

    It’s only one question.

    That leads to two questions.

    That leads to four.

    One Fibonacci series of questions later…

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    We discuss the DOJ like it’s a monolith of righteous lawyers believing in and protecting the law.
    But there are/have to be others who would be Whitaker supporters working there. Look at the NY office of the FBI. It isn’t a monolith of freedom and justice for all, any more than any other large assembly of humans, like the military. There is a reason people have had to fight for this for a very long time. There are blockades that have to be disbanded/end run about/exposed everywhere.
    No matter what a majority of people believe this country is about, there are a large number of people who don’t see it. And that majority is not uniform in it’s beliefs either. We should never forget that even the founders had disparate beliefs about what a country should be and who should run it and how.

  9. 9.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Ruckus:
    That’s why we, through our representatives and as protesters, will have to pressure these orgs to do the right thing.

  12. 12.

    MCA1

    Check me if I’m wrong here, but didn’t Prezdolt just tell the American people yesterday that he doesn’t really even know Whittaker?

    Seems…not quite in line with “spent hours and hours on the phone together in one-on-one calls.”

    Hunh. Weird, right?

  13. 13.

    Gemina13

    The long knives came out in a hurry for Whitaker, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

    So, just who did he piss off?

  16. 16.

    Mary G

    Finally! CNN:

    US to stop air refueling of Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
    By Ryan Browne and Barbara Starr, CNN

    (CNN)The Trump administration and the government of Saudi Arabia are expected to announce next week that the US will no longer refuel Saudi aircraft conducting strike missions over Yemen, two US officials tell CNN.

    The move is expected to have minimal impact on the Saudi effort because the US was only providing refueling for some 20% of Saudi aircraft.

    I would think that the 20% of Yemenis who are not going to be bombed any more would consider it to have a pretty major impact.

    MBS really fucked himself over when he had Jamal Khashoggi murdered in such a blatant manner. He’s been bombing Yemen back to the Stone Age since 2015 with nobody of consequence paying any attention to MSF and the UN about all the starving and sickness there. Now the FYFNYT finally got up off their emails/caravans/Democrats in disarray asses and did a photo essay about a little girl who was a “breathing bag of bones” and has subsequently passed away, and Pompeo and Mattis can’t do the “nothing to see here, move along” anymore and have moved on to the “I’m shocked that there is gambling going on in this establishment.”

  18. 18.

    TenguPhule

    Despite the fact that he’ll be tweeting, and barring a major diplomatic incident while in France, which, to be honest with Trump is always a distinct possibility, he has limited ability to drive the news cycle through the weekend.

    Trump: “The bombers will reach Iran in fifteen minutes.”

  21. 21.

    JPL

    Today’s breaking news was from the WSJ implicating trump in campaign finance violations and Whitaker working with a scam company.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    Whitaker received $9,375 from the company, according to court documents.

    What gets me is how all of these Nazis sell their souls for pocket change.

  25. 25.

    TenguPhule

    @JPL:

    Today’s breaking news was from the WSJ implicating trump in campaign finance violations and Whitaker working with a scam company.

    And that’s only the third or fourth biggest headline of the day.

  27. 27.

    MazeDancer

    One wonders if Trump has any sense of his self-parody when he babbles “I don’t know Matt Whitaker”.

    And then the networks dutifully play the tape of him spouting on one of his Fox call-ins “I know Matt Whitaker”.

  28. 28.

    boatboy_srq

    Scams and Florida.

    Wuddashock.

    /s

    SRSLY: is Voldemort the only scammer from FL who can get away with it?

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

  38. 38.

    lgerard

    “I don’t know Matt Whitaker.” He also claimed that he never spoke to the then-DOJ chief of staff about the Mueller investigation: “I didn’t speak to Matt Whitaker about it,” he said.

    That certainly rings true doesn’t it?

  41. 41.

    Platonailedit

    @Mary G: That’s excellent news. Hopefully more dem cong critters will develop backbones to take down this overhyped org of thugs.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    Wait, you mean to tell me that a Trumper turned out to be two-faced, telling Sessions and Rosenstein that he was on their side right before he ran to Trump and Kelly with all of the fresh dirt they could use to get rid of Sessions and Rosenstein? Hoocouldaknowed?

    Being an employee of a scam company just seems like him performing true to form, frankly.

  45. 45.

    trnc

    If Sessions, Pruitt, etc were scraped from the bottom inside the barrel, Whitaker (and probably any future administration pick) is on the actual bottom of a barrel that was thrown into the waste pit at a hog farm built on a nuclear waste site.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @boatboy_srq:

    is Voldemort the only scammer from FL who can get away with it?

    Steal a hundred dollars and you’re petty thief.

    Steal a hundred million from Medicare and you’re a valued political donor.

  48. 48.

    Dan B

    @Ruckus: So right! I remember the IC in the Vietnam / Civil Rights era. They were the enemy of freedom. They were the authoritarians. World political dynamics were different then but many are similar today. Russia is still opposed to democracy and to NATO. But the left in the US is nowhere near as extreme as the far right. The left was getting funding from the Kremlin. Now it goes to Jill Stein and RT. Neither are building bombs. But the right is using a Victor Orban incremental dismantling of government that may unsettle the “order” of the law and order contingent in the IC.

    The power struggle for democracy vs libertarian vs authoritarian is taking place in closed rooms beyond the sight or awareness of most Americans.

  50. 50.

    frosty

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: From a thread below on your choice of places to move. Here’s my thoughts:

    I’d vote for Pittsburgh. Good liberal mayor, lots of interesting neighborhoods. The rivers and mountains are kind of spectacular: SF of the east, if SF had rivers. Close to Ohio if you want to go back to visit friends. SoCal and NYC are both pretty damned expensive, too.

    Plus PA is one of the places that’s not going to get hammered by climate change. Plenty of precipitation, means we won’t run dry or burn to the ground. Hurricanes don’t make it this far (knock wood). No tornadoes, volcanoes, earthquakes. The worst natural disaster is ice storms, which I expect you’re used to in Ohio.

  51. 51.

    The Dangerman

    …at least a recusal, if not an outright resignation

    So, who is on deck if he resigns or recuses (and is, thus, fired)? And, since that person will probably be a flaming asshole, too, we might as well try to guess who is in the hole, too (in the hole, not is a hole …. thank you).

  53. 53.

    JPL

    @Jay: Trump’s wife was a nude model and the pictures were in the NYPost so maybe he’s trying to get in front of the story like he did with Melania’s pictures. All I know is I’m to old for this shit.

  54. 54.

    lgerard

    My question is why did CNN hire this guy as a “legal analyst” in the first place?

    He seems to be strictly minor league, particularly in light of the talent available in NYC and DC

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @MCA1: Given that everything Donnie says is a lie, it would probably be more disconcerting if he said that he did know him…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    Ruckus

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
    They think that they can win and then be the only power. Many have made the point that drumpf wants to actually be a dictator. Which really is his only chance of being anything. Sure, he’s president, in name. But in stature, in competence, in any significant positive way? No. He’s not president, he’s a toddler playing president, like an easy bake oven is like the one in your kitchen. The problem is that with the force of law somewhere near him, we have to exist upon whatever comes out of that easy bake oven.

  61. 61.

    jl

    @trnc: IANAL, but I’m reading that Trump’s rash action may backfire if he intends to outright fire Mueller or take dramatic action to deep six Mueller’s investigation. Mueller and his staff could run to the courts and have standing to question the sketchy use of Trump’s appointment power.

    Would it be that hard to get somebody confirmed by Senate who would make it harder for Mueller’s investigation to have standing in court after orders come down to shut it down or cripple it? Sen Collins is is making a fuss, but Whitaker is such an obvious slam dunk sleazy bozo, she doesn’t have the rather tiny cover she needs to go along (forgive me for being cynical about Collins, I apologize). And Graham is eager to do anything to cater to Trump. Most of the Senate is like Graham, but not so abject in their public display.

    Trump is impulsive, ignorant and arrogant, and stupid, and he is the kind guy whose faults are amplified under pressure. Probably ‘explode’ is better than ‘are amplified’. He is incapable of ever ‘getting it together’. Which may save us.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @pluky:

    three is the next Fibonacci, not four.
    0 1 2 3 5 8 13, . . . n(-2)+n(-1)
    /nerd

    Call yerself a nerd!?

    It’s 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 etc.

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    @The Dangerman:

    So, who is on deck if he resigns or recuses (and is, thus, fired)?

    Jared, Ivanka, Uday, Qusay, Zombie Roy Cohn, Zombie Kris Kobach, Whitey Bulger, Kim Philby (whoops! He’d be CIA or DHS. Sorry!), Nigel Farrage …

    how many more names you want?

  67. 67.

    Jay

    @TenguPhule:

    At the same time, he was the sole “employee” of a Dark Money funded PAC, pocketing up to half the funding.

    One of the things to keep in mind anout the New American Aristocracy, is that they will stop and spend the time to steal quarters out of a beggars cup.

  68. 68.

    Kent

    @germy: That absolutely made my day! Entitled white bro thought he was just going to fail upwards like all the rest of them.

  69. 69.

    jl

    @rikyrah: I had no clue these people were so stupid. I guess I should be glad. Easier to legally and politically defeat them and get them out of public life.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    @jl:

    Sen Collins is is making a fuss,

    I think she’s proved to be as craven as Flake, and as much of a liar as her boss, and as stupid as her boss, too.

  71. 71.

    encephalopath

    You can run around like a ninja in an organization like the Justice Department backstabbing your enemies and get away with that behavior as long as you are protected by someone with actual institutional power. People will fear you. People will go our of their way not to displease you.

    Whitaker seems to have confused this dynamic with him being a player. Being the AG requires public respectability and trust from the members of the organization. Whitaker isn’t going to get that.

    Everyone in there knows his actions as the backstabbing ninja. He can’t turn himself into samurai. No one is going to stand for that.

  78. 78.

    Gelfling 545

    @MCA1: It’s quite possible he doesn’t know him today. Ask again tomorrow. Conditions subject to change. While he was able to identify a camel on his “intelligence” test, he may not recognize Whitaker.

  79. 79.

    lgerard

    @germy:

    He has already wiped his campaign website, those things generally linger for months as there is still fundraising going on

  80. 80.

    jl

    Strange, after I posed a comment that disappeared into the great BJ blog void, I was invited to edit several comments by other people. The comments were great and had fewer typos than most of mine, so I declined the invitations. This happen to anyone else?

    My disappeared comment was on Kobach’s idiotic and arrogant non-campaign. I typed that I had no clue how stupid these people really were.

    Maybe it will show up after a while.

  87. 87.

    Platonailedit

    Does traitor think that the traitor-in-chief will bail him out?

    Talks between Special Counsel Robert Mueller and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have grown increasingly tense over Manafort’s apparent lack of cooperation with the investigation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

    Prosecutors from Mueller’s office have been asking Manafort about a wide range of topics in nearly a dozen meetings since Manafort agreed to cooperate in September, sources said, but the Mueller team is “not getting what they want,” said one source with knowledge of the discussions.

    The consequences of failing to fully cooperate could be dire when it comes time for Manafort to be sentenced.

    “Should it be judged…that the defendant has failed to cooperate fully, has intentionally given false, misleading or incomplete information or testimony…the defendant will not be released from his pleas of guilty but the Government will be released from its obligations…” his plea agreement reads.

    Judge Amy Jackson itemized the potential consequence Manafort could face if he breached his agreement with the Special Counsel, a list that ranged from additional fines to extended prison time.

    The agreement between Manafort and Mueller’s team remains intact, but sources told ABC News there’s frustration over whether Manafort is fully providing the information he agreed to offer, putting a strain on the deal.

    A spokesperson for the special counsel declined to comment. A spokesperson for Manafort declined to comment.

  89. 89.

    Mezz

    Would there be a strong likelihood that Mueller knew this FBI investigation (dating back to 2017) would demand this dude’s recusal if not firing if not indictment, and on those grounds Mueller would refuse to brief Whitaker in any way or manner pertaining ANYTHING to the investigation?
    Keeping that ignoramus as in the dark as before, while loading up some new aggravated crimes?

  97. 97.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @frosty:
    I’ll definitely think about it. I’ve visited Pittsburgh many times and it’s a great city that’s growing rapidly.
    @geg6:
    I am. Nursing. You’re referencing UPMC, right? That sounds cool.

  98. 98.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Adam L Silverman: Adam, y’know, one of the things that I wish veterans’ orgs would advocate for, politically, is command responsibility. It still really, really, really, pisses me off that Lynndie England and a few others were convicted for Abu Ghraib, when in fact the actual perpetrators were elsewhere, much better paid, and hence insulated.

    Really pisses me off.

    Command responsibility needs to be a thing. With penalties up the chain that exceed those meted-out lower-down.

    Pour encourager les autres, bien sur.

  99. 99.

    Chetan Murthy

    @lgerard:

    My question is why did CNN hire this guy as a “legal analyst” in the first place?

    Diamond and Silk are sending a process server over to give notice of their suit for defamation.
    .
    .
    .
    .
    giggle

  103. 103.

    Shalimar

    @Mnemosyne: The employee part to me is funny. Whitaker was a nobody, a minor part of small scams, looking for any way he could to make a buck. Trump is never impressed by the best and brightest.

  104. 104.

    Miss Bianca

    @Platonailedit: Is it wrong that I wish Mueller could just throw the bastard into solitary until he felt more cooperative?

    Hark at me. I never used to root for the prosecutor.j

  106. 106.

    Gemina13

    @Adam L Silverman: What’s news to me is how fast information about Whitaker was leaked. I haven’t witnessed a mugging this bad since growing up on Howard Street in Chicago.

  107. 107.

    lgerard

    The last word on Whitaker

    We have conducted a full review of Acting Attorney-General Matthew Whitaker’s background. We have determined that he has a stellar track record and admirable moral fabric. We look forward to seeing him succeed in his new position.— Surefire Intelligence (@SurefireIntel) November 10, 2018

  108. 108.

    Tenar Arha

    @lgerard:

    My question is why did CNN hire this guy as a “legal analyst” in the first place?

    He seems to be strictly minor league, particularly in light of the talent available in NYC and DC

    I’ve read & thought a lot about people like this guy. Two reasons: 1) Because every CNN panel needs at least the presenter & 2 journalists of whom at least one but usually both are there to take a centrist position btw an imaginary leftist, vs. the never Trumper & the pro Trumper who’ve been really hired to comment.

    2) Bc this is the model of how they do most news commentary on cable, CNN needed new hires after the election bc there were lots of commentators who went never Trumper, who were now persona non grata in Trumplandia. This guy was cast as a pro Trumper bc there really aren’t that many who can actually talk & spar in soundbite without losing their cool & really sounding crazy. But also have so little attachment to their egos that they don’t mind reversing themselves on a dime between one hour to the next when Trump contradicts himself. At least as long as they get paid &/ elevated when Agent Orange notices them. ?

  110. 110.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @pluky: Um…not quite. You left out the second 1:

    0, 1, 1 (=0+1), 2 (=1+1), 3 (=1+2), 5 (=2+3), 8 (=3+5), 13 (=5+8), 21 (=8+13), 34 (=13+21)

    und so weiter. /alpha nerd

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